In this paper I’d like to share some common stereotypes with you, and some of their background information. Hopefully my paper will show you that there is a lot more than what meets the eye, and will make you think twice before you spread another stereotype around. They can be offensive, and they can really hurt somebody.
Have you ever heard that “All blondes are dumb”? Well, I have and I never quite understood why it’s such a common stereotype that we use, until I did a little research. In European cultures blonde haired woman have been known as desirable, especially if they had blue eyes. In our current culture, it is also stereotyped that men think blonde haired women are more attractive than women with any other hair color. For some reason,
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Most people believe that all Arabs are Muslims, and all Muslims are Arabs...but, there are millions of Arabs that are not Muslim, and vice versa. Actually, Muslim is a religion and Arab is used to describe people from the Middle East. Here’s a couple examples of things that we stereotype when it comes to Arabs. “The Terrorist”, we think is a mad dog who is happy to sacrifice his life to kill woman and children, because he’ll get 79 virgins in heaven. “The Arab Street”, we believe to be full of angry people shouting “Death to America” while shaking their fists and beating themselves with chains. Last, the “Bellydancer”, women who dance provocatively and are sexually available. Most people think these stereotypes are true because of the way that our media portrays them. It’s also very funny that most people think all Arabs are Muslim, when they’re not at all. 40% of Lebanon's population, 10% of Syria, and 10% of Egypt’s population is actually Christian. I do hear this stereotype often, especially after the attacks in Paris. It’s almost like the first people we try to blame for any sort of attack like that, is anyone Arab or Muslim. It’s sad, and if people would take some time to do research on the things they are so quick to believe, maybe that wouldn’t
Robert Heilbroner, in his essay “Don’t Let Stereotypes Warp Your Judgments,” justifies why the ideas stereotyped aren’t always correct. He goes on saying that stereotypes are “a kind of gossip” which makes us fit more into the life we think we need to live. He states examples of how names, nationalities an...
In this article, I will discuss the relics of these stereotypes and how they are still portrayed, through various social media.
Another stereotype is that Arabs all live in the desert and ride camels. This angers many Arabs because that is not the lifestyle they live in at all. Lastly, many Arabs in movies and shows are shown as villains and terrorists. Not every Arab person is bad so why show them as bad people? These stereotypes are unfair to the Arab culture.
At one point in time, these stereotypes may have been true; however, in today’s modern society, most of these stereotypes are outdated and false, which leads them to turn into misconceptions. Usually, stereotypes are utilized to humiliate and degrade the person or group; they also do not provide any beneficial outcomes. Stereotypes focus on how a particular group acts because of the radical ideas and actions of the few, how a particular group looks, or how that group is physically lacking in some way. These stereotypes often lead to conflicts because the group does not appreciate the way it is perceived. Seldom are the stereotypes placed on a group of people truthful and accurate.
Nittle, Nadra. "What Is a Stereotype – Examples and Definition of Stereotypes." 2014. Web. 19 Feb 2014.
"For most of history, anonymous was a woman", quotes Virginia Woolf. (1) Throughout history, women’s lives were restricted to domesticity and family, and they were left oppressed and without political voice. Over the decades the roles of women have dramatically changed from chattels belonging to their husbands to gaining independence. Women became famous activists, thinkers, writers, and artists, like Frida Kahlo who was an important figure for women’s independence. The price women paid in their fight for equality was to die or be imprisoned along with men, and they were largely forgotten in written history. However, the roles they took on were wide-ranging which included working in factories, tending the troops, taking care of children and working at home. Frida Kahlo was a talented artist whose pride and self-determination has inspired feminists and many others. She was an important figure in the women’s movement not because she fought for women’s rights in an organized way, but because of the way she lived her life. “I suffered two grave accidents in my life. One in which a street car knocked me down, the other accident is Diego” (2), says Frida Kahlo. She was in a turbulent relationship with her husband Diego Rivera, but she claimed her independence from him. The experiences in her life shared with her nature and strength made her famous and well-known worldwide as a woman of independence, courage and nonconformity. Women like Frida Kahlo have fought for their independence and contrasting the modern-day women to the women in 1900s, we can see that their roles have changed and in return they received their independence. After centuries of conforming to female stereotypes, women are gradually taking control of their own image of...
The work's topicality is characterized by the existence of the gender stereotypes in society, having generalization, and does not reflect individual differences in the human categories. Meanwhile, there is still discrimination on the labour market, human trafficking, sexual harassment, violence, women and men roles and their places in the family. Mass media offers us the reality, reduces the distance, but we still can see the negative aspects too. TV cultivates gender stereotypes, offering ideas about gender, relationships and ways for living. Such media ideas attach importance to many people in the society. Consequently, it is quite important identify gender stereotypes in the media, in order to prevent false views relating to gender stereotypes.
The wrong in stereotyping comes when our judgements and preconceived ideas about individuals guides our encounters with those individuals in a negative way. For example, we look at the well-known stereotype, “Blondes lack intelligence”. This type of idea leads to an unfair implication on a wide range of individuals that is used to judge instead of describing based on our experiences. On the other hand, there are examples where we encounter a stereotype that is not initially viewed as negative but rather positive. One of the more common examples of this is the notion that “Asians are good at math”. Now you may be thinking isn’t is a respectable thing to be viewed a smart? Yes, yes, it is, but where this type of stereotype trends towards negativity is when it feels more like a judgement than a description of a person. To convey that example, say you put yourself into the shoes of a person of Asian descent, who happens to be below average when it comes to mathematics. Knowing of this stereotype wouldn’t you feel less
Why is it that people stereotype males and females no matter what nationality they are? Because we are all the same in the end but the media makes many people think differently. The general public thinks that all females like doing their hair, makeup, dolls and love light colors like color pink. Males on the other hand likes cars, playing video games, sports and like dark colors like blue. Advertisements are gender stereotyping whether people notice or care. Females are mostly openly stereotyped compared to the males because of our lack of abilities that males have. Stereotyping damages both genders but females more than males because of advertisement’s constantly reminding females on how they should act and be like all the time.
...reotype. This tendency has to do with selective memory bias; remembering the information that supports the stereotype and forgetting the information that doesn’t (Floyd, 62). These self-confirming assumptions can influence how much we like a person, based on a stereotype.
Men are always stronger and smarter than women; all teenagers are rebels and rarely follow parents’ instructions; all Chinese are good at math—all of these statements are spread through the entire world although most people know they are not completely true. On the opposite viewpoint, when we evaluate those statements, it is controversial to judge and blame the individuals who spread these kinds of information out and keep saying them over and over again, because most of these things are partly true. This is that we call stereotypes, “which are types of generalizations, or assumptions, that people make about the characteristics of all members of a group, based on an image about what people in that group are like” (Burgess).Also, Chimamanda Adichie, the famous renowned writer, scholar, and the speaker of “The Danger of Single Story” in Ted Talks, once said, “stereotypes are created by single stories, the problem with stereotypes is not that they are untrue, but they are incomplete.” At this point, single stories are the pattern of the lack of understanding, uncorroborated assumptions, and some special cultural myths. Thus, at a certain level, stereotyping is an approach where people show their misunderstanding with each other based on their own personal, regional, and cultural perspectives, which is the consequence of the institutionalization and socialization of their environmental backgrounds.
The appearance of a person in general is one of the most important causes of stereotypes. People usually tend to stereotype a person from what they see and think. In Brent Staples’s “Just Walk On By: A Black Man Ponders His Power to Alter Public Space,” he experienced a certain stereotype from a white woman because of his appearance. He explained, “To her, the youngish black man—a broad six feet two inches with a bread and billowing hair, both hands shoved into the pockets of a bulky military jacket—seemed menacing close” (Staples 343). That white woman labeled Staples as a dangerous person who might hurt her, so she ran away as soon as she could. In other words, people usually define “‘suspicious characters’” as “‘swarthy’ or ‘dark and foreign-looking’” (Heilbroner 372). Moreover, “[m]ixed cultural signals have perpetuated certain stereotypes” (Ortiz Cofer 378). Ortiz Cofer experienced the typical stereotype as a Hispanic woman in the United States. For instance, the Latin women are usually viewed as the “‘hot tamale’” by using the words like “‘sizzling’” or “‘smoldering’” for definitions...
In elementary school one of the most common phrase used was, “You can’t do that you're a girl.” Society puts gender stereotypes and expectations on children at a very young age. I never really understood these stereotypes and expectations until later in my life. I couldn’t figure out why it was that boys were not allowed to like the color pink, and if the girls wanted to play “boy” sports it was seen as unusual. My family consists of my parents, my sister and I; so I never had sibling of the opposite gender in my life. I didn’t have someone to compare gender differences with. I was given toys no matter what gender they were geared towards. I remember receiving hot wheels cars and baby dolls the same year for Christmas and never thought anything thing of it. I think that these experiences has really shaped who I am today.
Gender stereotypes are very prevalent in today’s early childhood classrooms with societal expectations playing a significant role in generating the negative outcomes of both sexes (National Union of Teachers, 2013, p. 4). These societal expectations perpetuate inequality and become apparent through various interactions, messages and materials as well as through professional documentation such as the Australian Curriculum or the Early Years Learning Framework (EYLF) (Siraj-Blatchford, 2004, p, 22). This type of inequality disadvantages students creating restrictions on the possible opportunities they can encounter throughout life as well as impacting on their self-esteem and relationships (Siraj-Blatchford, 2004, p, 22) (National Union of Teachers, 2014, p, 3).
Stereotypes are deeply embedded in every society in numerous ways. The dictionary definition of a stereotype is “one that is regarded as embodying or conforming to a set image or type.” Stereotyping or Labeling is a technique that “attempts to arouse prejudices in an audience by labeling the object of the propaganda campaign as something the target audience fears, hates, loathes, or finds undesirable.” These stereotypes become so cliché that they begin to form daily thoughts and views and one is unable to look beyond them. They then become dominant ideologies that are impossible to remove. These stereotypes are inevitable since they have been a key player in the propaganda that the west promotes to other cultures and societies.